742 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



our experiment stations tell us that what is 

 often called blight is only the effects of ex- 

 treme heat with a humid atmosphere The 

 foliage seems to burn or rot around the edges. 

 I visited the same locality just nine years ago, 

 and I did not notice then that it was given 

 particularly to growing potatoes ; but since 

 then everybody in that region seems to have 

 discovered that potatoes are the crop. 



Another pleasant surprise awaited me. It is 

 a great buckwheat country. Buckwheat, like 

 potatoes, does not stand much heat — at least 

 the grain does not fill well until we begin to 

 have cool nights. Friend Hilbert had a large 

 field of his own, and ever so many more were 

 in sight over the hills in different directions. 

 He says they grow only the common old-fash- 

 ioned buckwheat. Honey was coming in right 

 lively. Combs were being filled out and cap- 

 ped, and the inside of his hives looked like 

 June in clover time. I told him the honey 

 looked too light-colored to be buckwheat ; but 

 when I tasted it I found it had the buckwheat 

 twang all right ; but I did think it was a little 

 the nicest buckwheat honey I ever tasted. I 

 told Ernest about it, and he said it was, with- 

 out question, buckwheat and red-clover honey 

 mixed. The Traverse region is also a fine 

 place for growing red clover. Again and 

 again I wished friend Terry could take a look 

 over Leelanau County. I was astonished to 

 learn that they sow red clover in August, 

 among the growing corn or wherever there is 

 a chance to get it in. Said I : 



" Why, look here, Mr. Hilbert; how is it 

 possible for red clover to winter over away up 

 here in the North when sown in August, when 

 it would not in Ohio ? " 



"Why, Mr. Root, you fail to take into ac- 

 count that we have snow here oftentimes in 

 November that stays on the ground till April." 



Somebody has told me since that clover 

 grows under the snow all winter, for the 

 ground is rarely frozen at all. Friend Hilbert 

 pointed to the fences around the barnyard and 

 laughingly remarked that he had many times 

 driven his team right over the tops of those 

 fences on the packed-down snow. 



Perhaps I had better warn our readers right 

 here that this Traverse region is just now my 

 hobby, and you will have to make due allow- 

 ance ; and, to tell the truth, I can not think 

 of any other place in the whole world, that I 

 know of, where I should like so well to grow 

 strawberries, clover, and potatoes, as in this 

 region. 



Friend Hilbert has a family of seven. I do 

 not know but I have told you before, a fruit- 

 grower needs a lot of boys and girls if any- 

 body does. Well, he has a very nice place 

 away up on the summit of a hill, and a very 

 nice family. I soon became acquainted with 

 them all, and even went out into the outside 

 kitchen to find the tea-kettle and help myself 

 to hot water. I had been down in the straw- 

 berry - patch admiring the rank luxuriant 

 growth of his plants, and pulled weeds to see 

 how much easier they came out in that sandy 

 loam than in our own Medina clay soil ; yes, 

 and I sampled the blackberries till I came 

 pretty near getting sick. Why, there was no 



end of things around friend Hilbert's that 

 aroused my enthusiasm. For instance, his 

 little girl, eight or nine years old, went out by 

 the barn to dig potatoes. I thought, as she 

 went along with a light potato-hook in her 

 hands, she was hardly large enough for such 

 work. In fact, the potato-hook would not 

 have been large enough nor stout enough ei- 

 ther, in our Medina clay. I saw her dig one 

 hill, and looked on with astonishment, not 

 only at the beautiful large potatoes, but at the 

 number in the hill. The hills were rather 

 scattering there, however. I do not know 

 but the hens scratched some of them out. I 

 took the hook and picked out a sample hill 

 where there was a good stand, say three feet 

 apart in the rows, and fifteen or eighteen 

 inches between the plants. Friend Hilbert is 

 up to the times, and cuts his potatoes to one 

 eye, or perhaps two. In th^t whole region 

 they practice level culture. I took just one 

 hill for a sample, and to my great joy and sur- 

 prise I found 13 great whopping Early Rose 

 potatoes, beautiful in shape because the soil 

 is so soft, fine, and yielding that the pota- 

 to could develop exactly as it does under the 

 straw in our orchard. Thirteen clean smooth 

 large handsome potatoes, and more hills all 

 around just like it. I marched into the house 

 and back into the kitchen where I found friend 

 Hilbert, and commenced : 



" Mr. Hilbert, what did you put on that po- 

 tato ground out by the barn where these 

 grew ? ' ' 



" I did not put on any thing — no manure 

 nor fertilizer of any kind." 



" What crop did you have on last year?" 



" Let me see — I think it was com." 



" Well, what did you have on the year be- 

 fore that ? ' ' 



"The year before, I had a nice crop of 

 strawberries there, and the ground was well 

 manured for them. It gave us a nice crop of 

 corn, and now you see it is giving us some 

 very fi.ie potatoes." 



" \&rs fine? I should say so ; " and I held 

 up my thirteen potatoes. "Why, that crop 

 will make 400 bushels to the acre where I dug 

 these." 



While the women were cooking the potatoes 

 I wanted to raise the lid of the kettle once in 

 a while and see how they were turning out. 

 I often do this at home, but I did not dare 

 to take the liberty there ; but when they were 

 put on the dinner-table, weren't they fine? 

 Well, I had not ridden a wheel before dinner, 

 but we had been out fishing, and we had had 

 wonderful success. Let me see. Friend Hil- 

 bert might say on his letter-head, after he tells 

 about the strawberries, maple syrup and hon- 

 ey, "Potatoes, fish, and blackberries" — well, 

 I guess I will not tell the rest ; but those Ear- 

 ly Rose potatoes, with the fish we caught in 

 Traverse Bay, and some maple syrup as a kind 

 of side issue — well, now, I tell you, were they 

 not fine ? Yes, and friend Hilbert away off 

 there in the country has an ice-house, and a 

 bright smart little girl whom they call " Erna " 

 (how I did start and look around when some- 

 body called out, "Erna"!)wlo makes the 

 nicest ice-cream you ever thought or heard of. 



